Nostalgia Flashcards
What is the poem about?
About mercenaries (soldiers who were mainly concerned with money) on the Swedish Alps experiencing extreme nostalgia and having to return home.
Technique of ‘-the sad pipes-‘
The parenthetic dashes slow down the rhythm of the poem and the personification of the pipes emphasise the emotions of the soldiers.
Describe the repetition of the word same at the end of the poem when describing the soldiers return home.
Anaphoric, monosyllabic repetition of the pre-modifying adjective ‘same’ which demonstrates the spacial deixis of the speaker, showing he has returned home to where he once was.
How is the poetic voice shown to be separate from the soldiers?
Repeated use of third person pronouns. Additionally in the quote ‘They had an ache here, Doctor.” the vocative shows the speaker is directly addressing someone else and is using body language which is implied via the emphatic stress of ‘here’.
Themes of the poem.
Memory, time, nostalgia, yearning, emotion.
What does the use of alliteration in ‘dull crude coins clench’ demonstrate?
The guttural alliteration which makes a cacophonist sound shows that the mercenaries have now disregarded the money or are ashamed of it due to their experience of nostalgia.
Meaning behind the title ‘Nostalgia’.
-Abstract noun
-A psychological disorder
-Sentimental longing and affection for the past
Meaning of the visual imagery in ‘colour of leaves’.
Imagery changes due to the plural of the noun ‘colour’ indication a change in seasons and time. This links to the cycle of memory being demonstrated through this visual imagery.
What philosophical question is briefly debated in the poem?
“Some would never fall in love had they not heard of love.” Could people not feel nostalgia if they had not heard of it? For a long time, nostalgia was a feeling that had no name.
